The content of happiness is rich and colorful, and different people have different understandings. Because people's survival and development are inseparable from material living conditions such as food, clothing, housing and transportation, and from culture, ideals, morality, friendship and love of spiritual living conditions, the real realization of happiness should include both material life and spiritual life.

Regarding the content of happiness, Mao Zedong emphasized the unity of material life and spiritual life.

First of all, it is affirmed that material life is the foundation of a happy life. 1925 65438+in February, he wrote in the article "Why did you publish a political weekly?" For the revolution. Why the revolution? In order to liberate the Chinese nation, to realize the rule of the people, and to make the people get economic happiness. " [12] In "Economic Problems and Financial Problems" written by him in 1942, according to the actual situation in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, he put forward that the general policy of our economic and financial work is to "develop the economy and ensure supply", and also put forward that comrades in the whole border area must "try their best to benefit farmers and make them rich as soon as possible". He also said: "The first task of all rural laborers in party member is to' organize the people, lead them to help develop production, increase their material welfare, and on this basis, gradually improve their political consciousness and cultural level. Therefore, we should work hard day and night and seriously study the living problems among the people, production problems, cattle raising, farm tools, seeds, fertilizers, water conservancy, pastures, agricultural loans, immigration, land reclamation, improved agricultural practices, women's labor, idlers' labor, immigration plans, cooperatives, reform teams, transport teams and textiles. [13] 1945 In April, Mao Zedong pointed out: "The policies and practices of various political parties in China play a good or bad role in the people of China. In the final analysis, it depends on whether it contributes to the development of the productive forces of the people of China, whether it is a constraint or liberation of the productive forces." He added: "The purpose of the socialist revolution is to liberate the productive forces." [15] Mao Zedong said in 1956 "On Ten Major Relationships": "We should mobilize all direct and indirect forces and strive to build China into a powerful socialist country". [16] 1957 March 19, he pointed out in the outline of his speech at the party member cadre meeting: "Now it is in a period of transformation: from class struggle to anti-natural struggle, from revolution to construction, from past revolution to technological revolution and cultural revolution." Mao Zedong's exposition shows that he attaches great importance to the material content of people's happiness, and makes it clear that the purpose of our class struggle and revolution is to liberate the productive forces, change the poverty and backwardness of the country, and constantly improve people's living standards. "To make the people get economic happiness" The highest program of our party is to realize * * * productism, and an important feature of * * * productism is the high development of productive forces, that is, to let all members of society enjoy great wealth of material products, and to implement "various"

In Mao Zedong's view, people's happiness is closely related to the development of social production and the increase of people's material welfare. Basic material living conditions are the foundation of happiness, the material guarantee for people's survival, development, creation and realization of human values, and also directly restrict and influence spiritual life. For the benefit of the people, the first thing is to constantly improve and improve the people's material living standards. Leaving the people's basic material living conditions means leaving materialism and only talking about happiness. Mao Zedong brought the continuous improvement and enhancement of people's material welfare into the category of happiness precisely because he adhered to the basic viewpoint of materialism and embodied the idea that people are the subject of happiness.

Happiness is inseparable from material living conditions, but happiness and material enjoyment cannot be equated, let alone attributed to hedonism of personal material enjoyment. Personal hedonism is an optimism of the exploiting class. If a person indulges in material enjoyment and lacks noble spiritual sentiments, he will inevitably feel depressed, empty and desperate; If a person loses a healthy spiritual life, money may become a breeding ground for greed, produce false deception, and even make people degenerate and morally corrupt. The phenomenon of rich material life, bad social atmosphere and declining moral standards in capitalist countries is a living example. It is worth noting that the decadent hedonism that the proletariat and the working people have long abandoned has grown in China in recent years, and some people blindly pursue personal pleasure. Theft, fraud, bribery, gambling, hooliganism, drug abuse and other illegal crimes in society are all caused by hedonism in the final analysis. Therefore, hedonism is a corrosive agent that leads to human depravity, which is fundamentally opposite to the proletarian concept of happiness.

Secondly, it emphasizes that spiritual life is an important part of happiness. People's happiness can come not only from the enjoyment of material life, but also from spiritual life. Many thinkers before Marxism also clearly saw this point. For example, Heraclitus, an ancient Greek materialist philosopher, said, "If happiness lies in physical pleasure, it should be said that cows are happy when they find forage to eat." [17] Another famous philosopher, Democritus, also said, "Happiness lies not in owning cattle or gold, but in our souls." [18] Shakespeare, a great British playwright, said, "What is a man if he only knows how to eat and sleep in his prime?" Simplicity is just a beast. "[19] That is to say, people are different from ordinary animals. People have ideals, thoughts, feelings and rich spiritual life. If a person ignores the satisfaction of spiritual life and only regards material enjoyment as happiness, then this kind of happiness is only animal-level happiness.

Mao Zedong's view of happiness not only attaches importance to the happiness of material life, but also attaches importance to the happiness of spiritual life. Actually, spirit and matter are the unity of opposites. People's happiness is not only the pursuit of material life and physical aspects, but also the pursuit of spiritual life and psychological sustenance. The content of spiritual life includes noble sentiments, sincere friendship, pure love, cultural knowledge, healthy cultural entertainment and sports. These are more advanced and deeper happiness than material life. Many facts in real life show that there is no real happiness if there is only material life satisfaction and no spiritual life satisfaction. A person has a rich spiritual life and a noble moral sentiment of dedicating himself to lofty goals and ideals in life. Even though the material living conditions are poor, he still feels the meaning of life, and his life is full, and he feels very happy. For example, the great scientist Qian Xuesen gave up the favorable material conditions abroad and returned to the motherland; For another example, during the revolutionary war years, material welfare was meager, but people's mental outlook was rich and substantial. On the contrary, if a person is lacking in ideals, spiritual emptiness, low taste and despicable soul, even if he has the richest material living conditions, he will feel that the whole life is boring, his heart is empty, his future is bleak, he is negative and pessimistic, and he is sleepy. This phenomenon is also very common.

Mao Zedong emphasized the significance of spiritual life to happiness, and thought that the satisfaction of spiritual life was higher than that of material life. Lenin said that materialism is the most "idealistic" when reading the textbook of Soviet political economy. They are the most industrious and not afraid of hardships. Money is material, but money can't buy materialists. They have the greatest ideals, so they fight tenaciously. In other words, fighting materialists pay more attention to the strength and function of the spirit than idealists. True revolutionary materialists have lofty ideals and firm integrity. They don't seek personal fame and fortune, don't ask personal gains and losses, don't seek personal enjoyment, are not afraid of difficulties and hardships, and are the most indifferent to personal material life, but they are the most strict in their ideological cultivation. Mao Zedong dialectically expounded the relationship between material life and spiritual life. He not only attaches importance to the material content of happiness, but also emphasizes that he should dominate his material life with a healthy, scientific and noble spiritual life, so as to truly enjoy the happiness and significance of life. He has always attached importance to people's education, and proposed to educate people, establish the ideal and belief of * * * productism, eliminate illiteracy, strengthen the study of scientific and cultural knowledge under the guidance of Marxism, and improve the cultural quality of the Chinese nation. During the Second Revolutionary Civil War, he pointed out that in order to create a new era, it is necessary to remove the spiritual shackles imposed on workers and peasants by the reactionary ruling class and create a new Soviet culture of workers and peasants. The general policy of cultural education in the Soviet Union "lies in educating the working people with the spirit of * * *, in making cultural education serve the revolutionary war and class struggle, in linking education with labor, and in making the broad masses of China people enjoy civilization and happiness." [20] This is true in wartime, and so is socialist construction. 1959 when reading the textbook of Soviet political economy, he pointed out: "We should educate the people, not for individuals, but for the collective, for future generations and for the future of society." He also said: in socialist society, individuals go to school to learn cultural and chemical technology, first of all, in order to build socialism, for industrialization, for serving the people, for collective interests, not to get a high salary. In a conversation with 1958, he added: "Is this different from getting some shit when the dog is alive?" What's the point of engaging in productism without helping others? "Mao Zedong's exposition focuses on one point, indicating that proletarian revolutionaries should have lofty ideals and noble moral integrity. In order to stick to their ideals and for the revolution, they can abandon all their immediate personal interests. The great and lofty ideal and the thought of serving the people wholeheartedly are the soul of Mao Zedong's view of happiness.

In a word, the content of happiness is the unity of material life and spiritual life. Material living conditions are the foundation and premise of spiritual life, which is the sublimation of material life and higher than material life. We should not only attach importance to the content of a happy material life, but also oppose focusing only on material life without paying attention to spiritual life, and regard material life as the supreme hedonism. We should also oppose overemphasizing spiritual life, separating spiritual life from material life, and understanding happiness as asceticism without material enjoyment.